442 The Spiritual Man
God and loves himself as well as others for God’s sake: he can
therefore love others as his very self.
Let us understand that the lordship of God over our affection is an
indispensable requirement to spiritual growth. How undisciplined
and wild is our affection! If it is not subject to God’s will it shall
endanger our spiritual walk at all times. A mistaken thought may be
corrected easily, but an errant affection is nearly unmanageable. We
should love the Lord with all our heart, permitting Him to direct our
love.
Loving the Lord SoulishlyRight here we should sound a note of warning. Never think we
ourselves can love the Lord. Whatever comes from us is rejected by
Him; even loving Him is unacceptable. On the one hand, the
believer’s lack of deep affection towards the Lord grieves Him
greatly; on the other hand, one’s loving Him with soul power is not
welcomed by God either. Our affection, even when used to love the
Lord, must be entirely under the spirit’s management. Too many love
the Lord with a worldly love and too few, with God’s pure love.
Nowadays the Lord’s people primarily employ their soulical
power to absorb the things of God. They speak about their Father
God, call the Lord their most beloved Lord, and contemplate His
suffering. By so doing their hearts are filled with joy and they feel
they are now loving the Lord. They conclude this feeling is from
God. Sometimes while meditating on the Lord’s cross they cannot
withhold their tears because they seem to experience such an
unspeakable burning affection for the Lord Jesus. These things
nonetheless pass through their lives like ships sailing through the sea:
no lasting trace is left behind. Such is the love of countless
Christians. But what is this kind of love after all? Such love as this is
the sort which only serves to make one’s self happy. This is not
loving God, it is loving pleasure. The visualization of the Lord’s